Apparatus for turning articles of oblong cross section on their vertical axis



Sept- 6, 1969 R. D. HANEKAMP E TAL 3,457,237

APPARATUS FOR TURNING ARTICLES 0F OBLONG CROSS SECTION ON THEIR VERTICAL AXIS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 20, 1967 ATTORNEY p 16, 1969 R. D. HANEKAMP ETAL 3,467,237

APPARATUS FOR TURNING ARTICLES OF OBLQNG CROSS SECTION ON THEIR VERTICAL AXIS Filed Sept. 20, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet D. 5 m R 0 U k .l E x n ...O NH A D Keith D. Jayne /A104,

/ ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,467,237 APPARATUS FOR TURNING ARTICLES OF OBLONG CROSS SECTION ON THEIR VERTICAL AXIS Robert D. Hanekamp, North College Hill, and Keith D. Jayne, Hamilton, Ohio, assignors to The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Sept. 20, 1967, Ser. No. 669,031 Int. Cl. B65g 47/24, /00, 17/00 US. Cl. 198-33 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention pertains to an apparatus for turning moving articles of oblong cross section on a vertical axis, and more particularly it relates to an apparatus of this general character in which a rotating worm and a stationary rail coact on successive articles that are being moved forward to rotate them on their vertical axis through a predetermined arc.

The handling of articles of oblong cross section, particularly bottles and the like, creates problems that are not encountered when handling similar articles of round cross section. For example, when feeding bottles of oblong cross section to a conventional liquid filling apparatus, it is possible that the long dimension of the bottle in cross section might be greater than the distance between adjoining filling heads. This necessitates the use of alternate filling heads in order to accommodate such bottles. With the use of every other filling head, the efficiency of the filling machine is greatly diminished since it is only being used at half of its normal capacity. On the other hand, bottles of oblong cross section are preferably handled by conveying equipment such that they move in the direction of their long cross sectional dimension since they are more stable and have a lesser tendency to tip and fall with its attendant diminution of efliciency in the filling operation. The problem encountered by the present inventors, therefore, was the need for a suitable turning device that would receive and turn bottles of oblong cross section on their vertical axis. Then they could be fed to a liquid filling machine with the short dimension of their cross section in alignment with the center-to-center distance between adjoining filling heads. This would double the capacity of the filler since every filling head would then be used. The turning and feeding of bottles of oblong cross section, however, was not easily resolved and thus the need for a satisfactory device for this purpose became apparent.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a device for continuously moving and conveying articles of oblong cross section such as bottles and the like, while simultaneously turning them on their vertical axis such that they can be readily fed to the star wheel feeder of a typical filling machine or like device.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an apparatus of the above character to reorient bottles such that their short dimension in cross section will be aligned with the spacing between adjacent filling heads on a filling machine.

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A further object of the invention is the provision of an apparatus of the above character which will operate with excellent reliability and with a minimum of operator attention.

Still another object of the invention is the provision of a bottle orienting device which can be readily adapted for use in cooperation with any typical commercially available liquid filling machine.

The nature and substance of the invention can be briefly summarized as comprising an apparatus for turning articles, e.g., bottles, of oblong cross section including article conveying means and an elongated, horizontally extending helical worm mounted alongside the conveying means. Successive articles are engaged within the lands of the worm as they are moved forward on the conveying means. The worm is tapered at its inlet end to receive articles on their long horizontal dimension and substantially parallel to the axis of the feed screw. A guide rail is provided opposite the worm and cooperates with the latter in turning the articles. As the articles are moved forward on the conveyor they are engaged on one side by lands of the screw which in turn coacts with the guide rail to provide turning forces in the form of a couple on each ar ticle to turn them through a predetermined arc of their vertical axis, preferably about degrees, in going from one end to the other of the turning apparatus.

While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter regarded as forming the present invention, it is believed the invention will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary plan view of the apparatus which illustrates the manner in which oblong containers are rotated as they are moved forward by a conveyor.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary elevation taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 which illustrates the turning apparatus wherein a number of bottles have been removed purely for the purpose of clarity of illustration.

As illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 2, the apparatus of the invention is adapted to handle and rotate the bottles 10 which are of oblong cross section as they are moved forward by the table top chain conveyor 11. The bottles 10 are oriented lengthwise, i.e., with the long dimension through the cross section of the body of the bottle aligned with the direction of conveyor movement.

The spacing of the bottles 10 as fed to the apparatus can be variable as it is not critical that they be fed in timed relationship with regard to any subsequent operations that are to be performed. Preferably the bottles are fed in suflicient quantity that the inlet to the turning apparatus is choked, that is with two or more bottles in contacting relationship at the inlet to the turning apparatus. This latter condition assures a steady supply through the turning apparatus and is particularly desirable when the turning apparatus is used to feed a filling machine so that a bottle will be supplied for each filling head.

The turning apparatus is mounted on an extending portion of the machine frame 12 by means of the guides 13 and 14 which are supported in the frame 12 and project outwardly as illustrated in FIGURE 1. A support plate 15 has bushings 16 and 17 secured thereon such that the latter slidingly engage the guides 13 and 14, respectively. The support plate 15 can be moved inwardly or outwardly for adjustment as desired with respect to the conveyor 11 by means of the adjusting screw 18 which is threaded in the frame 12 and is turned by the hand wheel 19. Thus, rotation of the hand wheel 19 causes the support plate 15 to be moved as desired for purposes of adjustment.

An elongated, horizontally extending worm or feed screw 20 is provided with a suitable helix 21, there being lands 22 at the root of the helix. The feed screw is supported by the spherical bearings 23 and 24 which are mounted in the bearing brackets 25 and 26 supported and secured to the plate 15. As illustrated in the drawing, the helix 21 at the inlet end of the worm 20 is tapered in order that it will receive and properly initiate turning of the bottles 10 in the manner to be described in greater detail hereinafter. The worm is preferably mounted such that its axis is at an angle of from about 2 to about 5 as measured in a horizontal plane with respect to the direction of travel of the conveyor 11.

The worm 20 is supported by a shaft 27 (FIGURE 2), one end of which projects through the spherical bearing 24 such that a bevel gear 28 is mounted on its end. A drive shaft 29 is supported in the plate 15 by means of suitable bearings. A bevel gear 30 is secured to the upper end of shaft 29 and is in driving engagement with the bevel gear 28.

The lower end of the drive shaft 29 has a sprocket 31 mounted thereon. A chain 32 engages the sprocket 31 thereby turning the shaft 29 which in turn drives the worm 20 through the bevel gear drive 28, 30. The chain 32 is driven in timed relationship with the rotation of the star wheel feeder 33 (FIGURE 1) such that successive bottles 10 are properly timed on delivery to the feeder 33.

An inner guide rail 34 and an outer guide rail 35 are provided at the inlet to the worm 20 as illustrated in FIGURE 1. This, of course, is to properly guide and orient the bottles 10 with respect to the inlet portion of the turning apparatus. The outer guide rail 35 extends substantially to the inlet of the star wheel feeder 33. The outer guide rail 35 is suitably configured such that it does not inhibit the turning of the bottles. To accomplish this objective, the rail 35 is mounted at a slight angle with respect to the line of movement of the bottles 10 as will be noticed by an examination of FIGURE 1. The rails 34 and 35 may be composed of a plurality of sections depending on the height of the bottles.

A guide 36 is provided in cooperative relationship with the star wheel feeder 33 to maintain the bottles 10 in the feeder 33 as they are rotated and fed into a liquid filler (not shown) or other processing device.

In a preferred mode of operation, the table top chain conveyor 11 is moved such that the bottles 10 travel at a rate faster than they are permitted to move forward through the worm 20. This speed differential tends to choke feed the bottles 10 at the infeed to the worm 20 which is a desirable condition. The speed differential between the conveyor 10 and the worm 20 is also preferred because it keeps each bottle bearing against the forward portion of the worm helix 21 as it travels forward in the turning apparatus. The pushing effect of the bottle 10 against the helix 21 combined with the guiding effect of the rail 35 causes and controls the turning of the bottle on its vertical axis.

As the bottle initially enters the worm 20 it contacts the helix 21 at a point which is to one side of and in front of the center of the bottle. This point corresponds to the point 37 in FIGURE 1. Thus at the very inlet the bottle bears against the worm helix 21. Because of the varying height of the helix 21, the front face of the bottle 10 is continually pushed to one side as it moves through the front portion of the worm 20. Since the conveyor 11 is moving at a faster lineal speed than the worm 20 will permit the bottle 10 to move, the bottle tries to move around the helix 21 so that it contacts the outer guide rail 35. The friction between the bottle 10 and the rail 35 results in a coupling cflfect (a force couple) which helps to turn the bottle. The rail 35 is helpful in limiting the are through which the bottle turns. Because of the frictional effect between the conveyor 11 and the bottle 10, the back of the bottle tends to hold its position and the bottle 10 rotates about a point on the rearward portion of its base. As the bottle continues through the worm 20, the same conditions (coupling forces) continue to act on .and turn the bottle until it has turned about degrees as it enters a pocket of the star wheel feeder 33. As the bottles are being turned and moved forward, the center distance between them is being decreased to the desired amount by the use of a worm having a progressively decreasing pitch as illustrated in FIGURE 1.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that similar results could also be achieved by providing a polished dea'd plate in place of the faster moving corb veyor 11. This latter condition would result in the worm 20 pushing the bottle as it is turned and moved forward. The trailing edge of the bottle would contact the worm to achieve essentially the same results.

While particular embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and it is intended to cover in the arr pended claims all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of this invention.

What is claimed as new is:

1. An apparatus for turning articles of oblong cross section on a vertical axis comprising:

(a) an article supporting surface,

(b) a single elongated, horizontally extending worm provided with a helix adapted to engage successive articles in the lands of said helix as they are supported and carried forward on said supporting surface, said helix having a progressively decreasing pitch from the inlet end of said worm,

(c) said worm being tapered at its inlet end to receive said oblong articles with their long horizontal dimension substantially parallel to the axis of said feed screw, and

(d) a guide rail coacting with said tapered worm to turn said articles through a predetermined are as they are moved forward on said supporting surface, the center distance between successive articles being simultaneously decreased as the articles are being turned.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said supporting surface is an elongated conveyor supporting said articles and moving them along as they are being turned by the coaction of the worm and the guide rail.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein said conveyor moves the articles at a linear speed sufiicient to maintain the forward surface of the article in contact with the helix of the worm, whereby the article is turned by the force couple created by the helix of the worm and the guide rail acting on the surface of the article.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the axis of said worm is at an angle of from about 2 degrees to about 5 degrees measured in a horizontal plane with respect to the direction of travel of said conveyor.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said guide rail opposite said worm is mounted at an angle with respect to the direction of travel of said conveyor to permit the articles of oblong cross section to rotate through an angle of about 90 degrees as they move through said apparatus.

6. An apparatus for turning articles of oblong cross section on their vertical axis comprising:

(a) an article supporting surface comprising an elongated conveyor supporting said articles and moving them along as they are being turned,

(b) an elongated, horizontally extending worm provided with a helix adapted to engage successive articles in the lands of said helix as they are supported and carried forward on said supporting surface,

(c) said worm being tapered at its inlet end to receive said oblong articles with their long horizontal dimension substantially parallel to the axis of said feed screw, the axis of said worm being at an angle of from about 2 degrees to about 5 degrees measured 5 6 in a horizontal plane with respect to the direction of mit the articles of oblong cross section to rotate through travel of said conveyor, an angle of about 90 degrees as they move through said (d) a guide rail coacting with said tapered worm to apparatus.

permit said articles to be turned through a predeter- References Cited mined arc as the articles are moved forward on said 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS supporting surface, and (e) said conveyor moving the articles at a linear speed 2911089 11/1959 Cartersuflicient to maintain the forward surface of the FOREIGN PATENTS articles in contact with the helix of the worm, Whereby the articles are turned by the force couple created 10 1 ggifizg by the helix of the worm and the guide rail acting on the surface of the articles. EDWARD A. SROKA, Primary Examiner 7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein said guide rail opposite said worm is mounted at an angle with respect to the direction of travel of said conveyor to per- 15 

